Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

Don, I notice these two books on your site:

The Good House Book: A Common-Sense Guide to Alternative Homebuilding  
by Clarke Snell
Building Green: A complete How-To to Alternative Building Methods by  
Clarke Snell & Tim Calahan

They would seem to have a bit of overlap. Yes or no and if so, how much?
> From clhw AT infoave.net  Thu Oct  4 08:59:49 2007
Return-Path: <clhw AT infoave.net>
X-Original-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Delivered-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: from smtpclma03.spirittelecom.com (smtpclma03.spirittelecom.com
        [165.166.142.54])
        by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 77A0B4C042
        for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Thu,  4 Oct 2007 08:59:49 -0400 
(EDT)
X-Report-Abuse-To: abuse AT spirittelecom.com
Received: from [64.53.114.54] (dial-66.r05.scabvl.infoave.net 
[207.144.140.66])
        by smtpclma03.spirittelecom.com (8.13.6/8.13.1) with SMTP id
        l94CxlIh003162
        for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Thu, 4 Oct 2007 12:59:48 GMT
Message-Id: <v02130501c32a8f3a8933@[64.53.114.54]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 09:00:12 -0400
To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
From: clhw AT infoave.net (clhw)
X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.4/4470/Thu Oct 4 10:09:08 2007 on
        smtpclma03.spirittelecom.com
X-Virus-Status: Clean
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Off grid living
X-BeenThere: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9
Precedence: list
Reply-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
List-Id: <homestead.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead>
List-Post: <mailto:homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:59:49 -0000

We hand-finished one beam after chainsawing it into submission, for the
mantel in the living room. It is probably an 8"x8", but might be larger.
> From a tree on the place. It is not smooth -- just rough finished, and we
like it. It's been in place since about 1976 or so. The brick for the
fireplace front and hearth were also made on our place or the neighboring
farm, out of the native clay. There is one laid in the hearth which has
1838 inscribed into it. That is also the year the local college, Erskine,
(and yes, Erskine Caldwell did attend there and was kicked out), was
founded.

Husband has a band saw. I'm very unfamiliar with this machine except to
hear it running. I think he calls it a re-saw. It was bought to facilitate
his pallet-making business. At one point, he was making 300 pallets a week
and had one employee and our 2 sons, all 3 occasional as they worked around
school and their own business schedules. Now, he makes about 150 pallets a
months, but it is still a nice post retirement occupation.

He was buying cants from a local saw yard. Oh, here he is, so I'm asking
questions. It is a Morgan band saw. It cost us about $10,000 new in 1987 or
so. He was paying about $150/thousand board foot for the cants. They are
probably at least twice that now.

What he does now is to buy rejects from the large lumber yard. A friend
sets the culls aside and calls us when he had a pile of them. We pick them
up on one of our 16' flatbed Stoll trailers (gooseneck); they load them
with their yard forklift. The boards are banded so transportation is not so
bad, and it is only about 15 miles.

The boards purchased this way are random lengths, 10' to 14', and may have
knotholes and uneven thickness. Definitely not #1 or #2. He uses the saw to
reduce them to the thickness needed, especially for the 2"x4"s, and then
uses a hand circular saw to cut them to the proper length and to notch the
cutouts. The last time we bought wood was about 2 weeks ago. He paid $100
for 2 trailer loads, piled higher than I like to see. He estimates that if
he had bought it in the form of the cants (which are also a better grade of
lumber), it could easily have cost about $2000.

On type of wood, it varies. We have one trailer load of nice cherry wood
sitting for using or selling. ANy suggestions? We get mostly oak, sometimes
poplar. The wood is air dried at the yard.
Lynn

> Yes, it is.
>
> One reason I like solid beams is the aesthetics. I just like the look
> of a big chunk of tree trunk. Now, if the beam will be hidden, then
> laminating is superior.
>
> My old log barn is falling apart. I will take down at least the front
> half that is falling in as soon as the metal barn provides a safe
> place to put those hand-hewn oak logs. Who among us will make beams
> by hand today?